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Gaming Apple Desktop Solution
- Thread starter Doggman
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Who would be interested in a Desktop from Apple that was designed to game on? I know I would be ordering one on release day
What, exactly, is your criteria? You're never going to get the top cream of the graphics, without dropping a few grand on a Mac Pro with server Xeon processors and doing your own aftermarket finagling. However, the current 27" iMac with the AMD 6970m, especially once upgraded to 2GB VRAM, can do very well in nearly every game on the market today; the next one, if it has a Nvidia 680M as I expect, will give midrange desktop-level performance.
The AIO concept, with OS X, is far more important to me than having an "upgradable" tower with the latest desktop components. You may have other interests.
The AIO concept is my biggest complaint about iMac's... Only positives I see are that they're pretty and neat... Why sacrifice raw power for aesthetic looks especially considering you don't necessarily have to lose the aesthetic looks just by going to a mid tower design. Personally an aluminum mid tower (similar to the Mac Pro but simplified to achieve a lower price point) would be a hell of a lot cooler than an iMac...
OS X however is the main reason why I own an Apple computer and want an Apple desktop over a custom rig running Win7.
Ideally I would want a simplified Mac Pro tower with an i5 3570k + GTX 670 + 256 SSD that's 100% customizable and it can be called the xMac, coming to you on September 12th for $1,999 ($100 off with Student Discount).
Bear in mind that is a $1,000 markup for the aluminum and OS X. If they could make it cheaper, all the better, but for some reason I think Apple would want even more for something like this.
You will buy such a rig but then you will realise that many games, especially demanding games such as Crysis and Skrim are not available for Macs.
Also I have arguments with others before over the position of an xMac in Apples lineup. It would detract from iMac and Mac Pro sales.
No one in their right mind would buy such a rig over a windows rig which offers better performance (software wise especially), wider range of peripherals (e.g surround sound) and cost a lot less.
Also I have arguments with others before over the position of an xMac in Apples lineup. It would detract from iMac and Mac Pro sales.
No one in their right mind would buy such a rig over a windows rig which offers better performance (software wise especially), wider range of peripherals (e.g surround sound) and cost a lot less.
I would, of course, load up Windows on my xMac and have the best of both worlds in one ultimate machine at a reasonable price. Detracting from sales is whatever... no one in their right mind is buying iMac's or Mac Pro's ATM anyway
This are words of wisdom.
Nonetheless, I would appreciate better enhancements from Apple and software developers to improve Mac OSX in the gaming industry. That would attract more game developers and could make the market grow a bit. But its a long road ahead and could be costly. Not to mention Apple shows very little interest in that segment.
Honstely, i've driven the tracks of custom build rigs way to long in my past.
My advice would be:
1. Drop the idea of a gaming rig
2. Drop the idea of a desktop which you can upgrade yourself (*1)
3. Save time, save space, save health
4. Buy an Mid to Topline iMac 27' and use Bootcamp
5. Be able to use the best of booth worlds (*2)
6. Have fun
7. Resell your iMac after 1-2 years
8. Save money because they are way more valueable and because of that don't drop their prices as fast as the rest of the PC world which refreshes way to fast rending anything old useless in the eyes of mankind
9. Restart from 1.
Honestly, no one needs an desktop tower anymore even for games, unless you are a top notch professional 3d-artist or making physical calculations on a level reached by 2-5% of mankind or something simliar.
That goes by saying that you need to keep real and dont try to outbuild games which are coded like raw eggs i. E.
Max Payne 3. If you want run such games at ultra high have fun at burning your money.
(*1): Nowadays small parts all over the whole system make the difference. They need to work together as best as possible. Just sticking A with B doesn't give you that. Back in the old days we weren't at such a level and because of that couldn't deliver the same performance we are seeing now.
(*2): Mac OS for daily usage and Windows for Windows Native-Only Games and
Applications like MS Office, .NET and such.
My advice would be:
1. Drop the idea of a gaming rig
2. Drop the idea of a desktop which you can upgrade yourself (*1)
3. Save time, save space, save health
4. Buy an Mid to Topline iMac 27' and use Bootcamp
5. Be able to use the best of booth worlds (*2)
6. Have fun
7. Resell your iMac after 1-2 years
8. Save money because they are way more valueable and because of that don't drop their prices as fast as the rest of the PC world which refreshes way to fast rending anything old useless in the eyes of mankind
9. Restart from 1.
Honestly, no one needs an desktop tower anymore even for games, unless you are a top notch professional 3d-artist or making physical calculations on a level reached by 2-5% of mankind or something simliar.
That goes by saying that you need to keep real and dont try to outbuild games which are coded like raw eggs i. E.
Max Payne 3. If you want run such games at ultra high have fun at burning your money.
(*1): Nowadays small parts all over the whole system make the difference. They need to work together as best as possible. Just sticking A with B doesn't give you that. Back in the old days we weren't at such a level and because of that couldn't deliver the same performance we are seeing now.
(*2): Mac OS for daily usage and Windows for Windows Native-Only Games and
Applications like MS Office, .NET and such.
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Mac + top notch hardware = Geek heaven.
Too bad it will never happen. The trend is going backward and mobile for Apple. Mac gaming is retarded for its time.
Calling GTA Vice City & San Andreas as "New & Noteworthy" Mac AppStore games on 2011 is complete hogwash.
The games are fine, vintage & fun, but come on .. Mac needs 10 years to get Windows games? It's really THAT retarded!
Oh I will get one if MacPro get the loves it deserves. In fact, MacPro is the only Mac I consider as a real workstation. It's beautiful, it's bad@ss for its time, and it's get the job done properly. iMac could be great too if it's not an AIO and has some particular problems (display, HDD, GPU).
MacPro owners would know it's the only Mac with least problems and repair numbers of all. It's super reliable, and many times a cool looking iMac/Mini/MBs is much less durable, even when compared to $400 cheap crap PC towers. They're designed to look cool, not properly engineered or cooled.
While MacPro designed to be reliable, yet beautiful. The best of both worlds.
Yeah
is awesome at making disposable machines nowadays. Some people love em for it though. However, I love for its adult's computers, not its shiny iToys. Only sad thing is they make less and less of the former.
Too bad it will never happen. The trend is going backward and mobile for Apple. Mac gaming is retarded for its time.
Calling GTA Vice City & San Andreas as "New & Noteworthy" Mac AppStore games on 2011 is complete hogwash.
The games are fine, vintage & fun, but come on .. Mac needs 10 years to get Windows games? It's really THAT retarded!
Oh I will get one if MacPro get the loves it deserves. In fact, MacPro is the only Mac I consider as a real workstation. It's beautiful, it's bad@ss for its time, and it's get the job done properly. iMac could be great too if it's not an AIO and has some particular problems (display, HDD, GPU).
MacPro owners would know it's the only Mac with least problems and repair numbers of all. It's super reliable, and many times a cool looking iMac/Mini/MBs is much less durable, even when compared to $400 cheap crap PC towers. They're designed to look cool, not properly engineered or cooled.
While MacPro designed to be reliable, yet beautiful. The best of both worlds.
Yeah
is awesome at making disposable machines nowadays. Some people love em for it though. However, I love for its adult's computers, not its shiny iToys. Only sad thing is they make less and less of the former.
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Who would be interested in a Desktop from Apple that was designed to game on? I know I would be ordering one on release day
I'd enjoy one, but since it ain't gonna happen, I just built my own PC w/ an i7 @ 4.5ghz and evga gtx 670 and got on w/ life. It runs cool, IS exceedingly quiet, and plays all my games w/ incredible FPS @ 1440p... and actually looks pretty sharp w/ the Corsair 650D case.
But sure, if Apple made a powerful end user desktop, I'd probably own it.
Too bad .. but fact is:
Building an ultimate PC tower + high quality 1440p 27" display to play "raw egg" games like MaxPayne 3 or BF3 burns less money than getting a fancy rMBP, or current MacPro + ACD.
iMacs are general purpose, and will underperform a fixed-purpose PC. That said, the iMacs gaming performance (on the high end models) is respectable and typically performant for the casual gamer.
If you are purchasing a gaming machine, and are on a budget, go for PC. There's a thriving ecosystem, and you can build an incredibly immersive experience on a shoestring budget.
If you're looking for a general purpose box, but play games on occasion, you will be pleased with an iMac.
If you are purchasing a gaming machine, and are on a budget, go for PC. There's a thriving ecosystem, and you can build an incredibly immersive experience on a shoestring budget.
If you're looking for a general purpose box, but play games on occasion, you will be pleased with an iMac.
Well said but I just wish I could mix that fixed-purpose PC with some aluminum and a lion...
It has nothing to do with how often you play games, or whether you're hardcore or casual.. It has to do with the specific games you want to play and whether the hardware in the iMac is up to snuff. Unfortunately, a 6970m is simply not an ideal candidate for gaming at the iMac's native 1440p screen res... A handful of games will be just fine, but many will not... ymmv with whether reducing graphics details will be sufficient, you may have to play the game in 1080p... It's worth stating this simply because I see so many people come to these forums and cry that their $2.5k machine can't play their favorite game, as if budget had anything to do with it... It doesn't.
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Well said but I just wish I could mix that fixed-purpose PC with some aluminum and a lion...
Word, me too man, me too...
Well, I was speaking about right after the iMac gets it 's update of course. Buying the old one right now isn't really what you should want (for gaming that is. Now is optimally the time where you'd sell your old iMac to people who couldn't afford to wait and or need them for some other purposes).
Also games like Max Payne 3 and BF 3 are coded so bad, that anyone who is fixing on them is burning money because you can't change the way a specific game is behaving due to bad code practices.
I find it funny just how many people need overpowered machines. There is a point of diminishing return and some people tend to ignore this (as I did before).
Also whats the purpose telling us that Apple is only making iToys? What exactly are iToys? Honestly I owned an Motorola Milestone and Samsung Galaxy SII before and there are still some HTC devices running arround in the family here but none of them are anything else then toys.
The iPhone works like its intend to be and the OS is way less sluggish then the overly rescrambled and updated Android System I've seen countless times getting teared appart by many publishers and then not cared about anymore (even by Google themself).
Yes the idea behind Android might be better, but the execution is way worse in terms of usability and stability. Funny that after jailbreaking your devices you can do some system things way better with an iPhone than with Android (i. E. call blocking).
In addition to that I recently bought the latest iPad WiFi 16GB (you don't need 3G if you have an smartphone already which can act as a 3G router). It's responsibility is way beyond that of any Android tablet. Also streaming flash movies is pointlessly easy if you know what you 're doing and using the correct App (even for Non-JB devices).
To get to the point:
If you know what you are doing you might have a lot fun with "iToys". If you aren't at least trying to be knowledgeable and are pointlessly fixated on some superlatives then go for anything else. Maybe you still need to make your own experiences.
Also games like Max Payne 3 and BF 3 are coded so bad, that anyone who is fixing on them is burning money because you can't change the way a specific game is behaving due to bad code practices.
I find it funny just how many people need overpowered machines. There is a point of diminishing return and some people tend to ignore this (as I did before).
Also whats the purpose telling us that Apple is only making iToys? What exactly are iToys? Honestly I owned an Motorola Milestone and Samsung Galaxy SII before and there are still some HTC devices running arround in the family here but none of them are anything else then toys.
The iPhone works like its intend to be and the OS is way less sluggish then the overly rescrambled and updated Android System I've seen countless times getting teared appart by many publishers and then not cared about anymore (even by Google themself).
Yes the idea behind Android might be better, but the execution is way worse in terms of usability and stability. Funny that after jailbreaking your devices you can do some system things way better with an iPhone than with Android (i. E. call blocking).
In addition to that I recently bought the latest iPad WiFi 16GB (you don't need 3G if you have an smartphone already which can act as a 3G router). It's responsibility is way beyond that of any Android tablet. Also streaming flash movies is pointlessly easy if you know what you 're doing and using the correct App (even for Non-JB devices).
To get to the point:
If you know what you are doing you might have a lot fun with "iToys". If you aren't at least trying to be knowledgeable and are pointlessly fixated on some superlatives then go for anything else. Maybe you still need to make your own experiences.
well realistically hardware wise latest apple tech is good for gaming machines. the only drawback is the OS. Unfortunately the best thing MS has done is DirectX. OpenGL just doesn't cut it and DirectX is really easy to develop for. Give Apple direct X and their current machines would rock.
nah, not really... the dGPU, particularly in relation to the massive screen resolution of an iMac, just isn't ideal for many games... a 6970m is comparable to a gtx 460.... which is still relatively decent for most games @ 1080p (some w/ lowered settings), but not so much for 2560x1440p.... for that, the entry point really is a gtx 560 ti for 1440p gaming (not spectacular, but pretty good)... if the next gen imac uses a mobility card on par w/ that, should make for a relatively satisfying gaming experience for most current games.
Actually my main reason for wanting a new iMac is to play X-Plane 10. Running it on a 2009 iMac 27" with a ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB does not do it justice at all. Can't wait for a more powerful processing power so that I can turn up the settings on X-Plane 10. However, even with the best new iMac 2012 its unlikely I'll even get the settings to max, but it will be miles better than I have now. Plus all my great Mac apps will work even better than they do now.
At the moment I am running an extra 23" screen off my 2009 iMac but hopefully with a 2012 iMac it will have at least two Thunderbolt ports, so I will be able to run two external 23" screens.
I am not that desperate for maximum X-Plane 10 settings to even consider a Windows machine.
At the moment I am running an extra 23" screen off my 2009 iMac but hopefully with a 2012 iMac it will have at least two Thunderbolt ports, so I will be able to run two external 23" screens.
I am not that desperate for maximum X-Plane 10 settings to even consider a Windows machine.
Well, I don't think despair is the only viable reason to consider building a Windows machine lol (you get total control of all hardware!), but really it's just a matter of knowing the hardware in the iMac you're buying and whether it's good for what you intend to do... just the same as any other computer, you can't expect it to perform just because it costs a considerable chunk of change, you have to do a little homework on the hardware (particularly the GPU for gaming) in relation to the actual games you intend to play... is my only point..
I for one would also love to see the OP's dream realized, a shiny aluminum mid tower w/ an Apple logo running some ML and a beastly GTX 680 or somethin'... pipe dream i know, but would still love it.
Who would be interested in a Desktop from Apple that was designed to game on? I know I would be ordering one on release day
Wish they could turn the ATV into this. Be sooooooooo rad.